Old Ford F-Series may be a beater, but it’s definitely not beaten.
Out in Moab, Utah, it’s common to see Jeeps of all sorts tackling various challenging trails. Some of them are simple, slightly modified TJ Wranglers. Others are newer JK Wranglers with tens of thousands of dollars pumped into their beadlock wheels, 37-inch tires, six-inch lifts, boulder-proof body armor, and stadium-worthy off-road lights. This is not a Jeep. It’s not even an SUV. It’s an old Ford truck. And it’s having a hard time digesting Potato Salad Hill.
We’ve seen gnarlier inclines before, but considering the age and shape of this truck, Potato Salad Hill seems difficult enough. The driver of this F-Series from a bygone gets to a certain point on the trail and starts losing a grip on the dusty earth beneath him. The tires look well-worn and designed for anything but rock crawling. He spins his wheels, makes a little progress, but can’t seem to get to the top. His truck’s cab and bed go in two different directions as he tries his damndest to get further up. The battered Ford bucks and bucks and bucks to no avail. At one point, one of the unsecured wheel/tire combos in the scraped and scarred bed comes loose and rolls down the incline and into the Utah wilderness, taking its traction-enhancing ballast with it. The tires that are actually on this rusty rig claw away at the slippery rocks, unable to hook up.
Just when the F-Series is close to getting high-centered on a dusty rock formation, the front rubber digs in. Finally! After all of that futile effort, all of that mechanical torture, all of those plumes of diesel smoke, the truck gets to the lofty peak. We don’t know what’s more impressive: the Ford or its driver’s resilience.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
